Highlights from the 2014 DIA Annual Meeting in San DiegoJune 26, 2014, Applied Clinical Trials Online – Moe Alsumidaie
The Drug Information Association (DIA) held its 2014 annual meeting in San Diego and attracted thousands of attendees from around the globe. Key themes from this year’s DIA Annual Meeting included incorporating advocacy groups/patient voices in clinical research, breakthrough research applications, and new data collection methodologies.

Greenphire Awards $35,000 to Three Health and Wellness Nonprofits as Part of Greenphire Gives ProgramJune 24, 2014, Greenphire News
Attendees at last week’s Drug Information Association (DIA) Annual Meeting in San Diego may have been surprised to find that it was anything but business as usual at Greenphire’s booth. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of DIA’s annual meeting and to create a lasting impact on the industry in which it works, the leading provider of payment technology for the clinical trial industry partnered with three organizations -- the American Red Cross of San Diego/Imperial Counties, NO MORE and The Scripps Research Institute.

NO MORE received a $20,000 donation, followed by the American Red Cross of San Diego/Imperial Counties which received a $10,000 donation and The Scripps Research Institute, which received a $5,000 donation. Attendees casted hundreds of votes

50 Years of DIA
June 24, 2014, eClinical viewpoint (MedNet Solutions blog) – Derek Gamber
This year marked the half-century mark for the DIA Annual Meeting, and MedNet was very excited to be a part of this milestone celebration. Year in and year out, I am amazed at how many new people we meet through extensions of the strong relationships we have built for over a decade. Hearing their stories of DIAs past, how the industry has evolved, and how technology has helped improve efficiencies in the overall conduct of clinical research makes us extremely proud to be a key partner in the eClinical space.
As you all undoubtedly know, the best way to gain an introduction is through a referral, and the DIA meeting is an incredible example of how the partnerships you work so hard to develop yield additional opportunities to forge new, long term relationships.

Abrams Talks Social Media at DIA
June 24, 2014, PharmExex.com – Ben Comer
“It doesn’t turn me on to send a warning letter” –Tom Abrams, during a Q&A at DIA.
Instead of repeating his yearly Drug Information Association (DIA) conference claim that social media guidance remains among the FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion’s (OPDP) “highest priorities,” to be published in due course, Tom Abrams, director of OPDP, had real news to discuss this time around: two new draft guidances (on correcting misinformation online, and on presenting benefit/risk in character-limited digital channels) had been published that very morning, June 17, both of which deal with important social media concerns for industry.

DIA Does Not Disappoint — For The Most Part
June 25, 2014, Life Science Leader
For the most part, the 2014 Drug Information Association’s (DIA) annual meeting did not disappoint. On my way to a session, I happened to see Pfizer’s chief medical officer, Freda Lewis-Hall, walking among the posters. I realize in her role as DIA program co-chair that this is one of her responsibilities. However, Dr. Lewis-Hall isn’t obligated to suggest to me to go check out a poster she thinks I would find interesting. During our conversation she not only suggested I be sure to check out Todd Knepper’s poster, she even gave me an enthusiastic Reader’s Digest version of what it was about. Obviously she isn’t just “mailing it in” when it comes to engaging with attendees. Another shining moment was the keynote presentation by Jamie Heywood, cofounder and chairman of PatientLikeMe.

Tales from DIA: A new world of personalized, patient-centric medicine
June 24, 2014, Philly.com – T.J. Sharpe
…The Drug Information Association (DIA) is the global organization dedicated to the development and life cycle management of medical products – basically, the guys behind the scenes who help get a drug from the lab to the patient. DIA’s 50th Annual meeting brought together all of these businesses associated with pharmaceutical development process, and I got a chance to provide the patient perspective on what it’s like at the end of that life cycle. The convention focused less on the big pharma companies themselves and more on those who work with them — getting patients to enroll (a biggie), managing projects and documents, dealing with the FDA and other regulatory hurdles, etc.

DIA in pictures: 50th anniversary conference
June 23, 2014, Outsourcing-Pharma - Zachary Brennan
With the World Cup as a background theme, DIA celebrated its 50th anniversary as a conference with lots to offer, especially for contract research organizations looking to kick their way to the top.

New Ideas vs. Inertia in Clinical Research: The View from DIA 2014
June 20, 2014, Health Decisions – Michael Rosenberg
Consistent with one of the 2014 DIA Annual Meeting’s themes – invent the future – the meeting showed glimpses of progress in a variety of areas, including precision medicine, use of electronic source documents, risk-based monitoring, use of social media in recruitment strategies, direct-to-subject trials and international regulatory collaboration. Many of the other trends in evidence at DIA will contribute to a successful transition to an era of precision medicine. High prices are not the long-term solution to the mismatch between the astronomical cost of development and the small populations that precision medicines target.

Tech vendors flock to DIA to show off new software
June 20, 2014, FierceBiotechIT - Nick Paul Taylor
With the clinical trial community gathering over the past week in San Diego for DIA 2014, eClinical technology providers posted a flurry of press releases detailing new and updated offerings. Parexel, PatientsLikeMe and BBK Worldwide were among the companies to show off their wares at the meeting.
PatientsLikeMe has continued to expand beyond its original function as a patient community by adding more clinical research services. The first of its three new offerings is designed to give patients a say in the design and running of clinical trials by providing biopharma companies with tools for gathering feedback. PatientsLikeMe introduced the tool after a survey of its community showed that 20% of people who participated in trials are dissatisfied by the experience. The company introduced tools for building registries and improving patient-reported evidence, too.

2014 DIA Annual Preview
June Issue, PharmaVOICE – Taren Grom
Coverage begins on page 34.
This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the Annual Meeting of the Drug Information Association, the largest multidisciplinary event that brings together a global network of life-sciences professionals to foster innovation. The meeting is being held in San Diego and has as this year’s theme Celebrate the Past — Invent the Future. The keynote will be given by Jamie Heywood, founder and chairman of PatientsLikeMe, a Web-based community that allows patients to pool their experiences about disease and treatment.

TransCelerate stops short of offering membership to CROs
June 19, 2014, Outsourcing-Pharma - Zachary Brennan
Big pharma industry group TransCelerate discussed but ultimately decided against allowing CROs to join the collaborative, though research contractors will be engaged routinely, members of the group said.

DIA 2014: Meet Sandra Khalil, President Crosslink Medical Resources, DIA Patient Advocate
June 19, 2014, HealthInnovation Media (with video) – Gregg A. Masters
Talk about walking the talk…‘One stop patient advocacy is my dream.’
Not since psychiatrist Gerald G. Jampolsky MD wrote his period piece ‘Love Is Letting Go of Fear’ (walking away from a lucrative psychotherapy practice) have I seen someone so willing to step out on faith and model the courage to be in service to her ‘fellows in need’ – you know, you, me our kids, parents and friends who may have fallen into the many gaps of an expensive, disconnected and often disinterested ‘healthcare borg’.

DIA 2014: Catching Up with Regina Holliday
June 18, 2014, HealthInnovation Media (with video) – Gregg A. Masters
This week I had the good fortune to catch up with and be part of The Walking Gallery ‘cast call’ at the Drug Information Association 2014 (DIA) Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. This is an organization I was not familiar with and the irony is they were celebrating their 50 Anniversary, so they’ve been around for a while. I was not alone as there were several other ‘walkers’ including the internationally renowned but local superstar author of ‘The Creative Destruction of Medicine’ Eric Topol who posed with Regina in his jacket aptly named The Creative Destruction of Medicine.

Announcing the 2014 Microsoft Life Sciences Innovation Awards
June 18, 2014, Microsoft in Health – Andrea McGonigle
Yesterday, Microsoft honored the winners of the 2014 Microsoft Life Sciences Innovation Awards at the Drug Information Association’s (DIA) 50th annual meeting in San Diego. Now in its ninth year, the awards are presented annually to recognize pharmaceutical, biotechnology, clinical resource organizations, and medical device companies that are leading the charge in scientific collaboration and innovation.

Updated DIA News and New Products
June 18, 2014, Clinical Informatics News – no author listed
Lots of product news coming out of the Drug Information Association annual meeting that started today in San Diego. Here are some of the highlights. We’ll be adding to this list throughout the week.
Verizon Focuses on Pharma Sector
In order to expand into the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries, Verizon is launching a portfolio of GxP (Good x Practices) Services for managing sensitive clinical and drug manufacturing data in the Verizon cloud or from select data centers. The services are available in the U.S. and Europe, and include focuses on foundational security, supporting alternative cost models, and enabling outsourcing of existing non-strategic systems. “In working with our pharmaceutical and life sciences clients, we realized many require a secure, enterprise-grade IT solution that can address their ever-growing regulatory requirements,” said Chris Davis, managing principal, healthcare, in a prepared statement. “Verizon developed its GxP services to enable our clients to securely scale their operations by outsourcing their IT infrastructure.”

Therapeutic Innovation and Regulatory Science are Alive and Well at DIA 2014
June 18, 2014, Life Science Network – Kena Hudson
The annual Drug Information Association’s global forum for therapeutic innovation and regulatory science visits San Diego this week for a little fun. Sadly, that fun is mostly inside the Convention Center. However, on Monday, DIA pulled out all the stops as exhibitors with soccer-themed marketing ploys gathered to watch Team USA beat Team Ghana. DIA celebrated the win… err, I mean their 50 year anniversary with booze and cupcakes for all. Mmmmm. Life isn’t always a beach (or a convention center), so let’s get serious and talk about the buzz being discussed at DIA 2014:
Global Harmonization
It isn’t enough for clinical trials to be run in the U.S. or specific areas of Europe. Developers and CROs must address patient and trial recruitment needs spanning the Earth, not to mention the various regulatory approvals across the continents. Global harmonization is much ballyhooed at DIA this year. Is it possible? Many think so and that digital options may hold the solution.

US Regulator and Industry Orgs Push on with Global Expansion
June 18, 2014, PharmExec.com – Jill Wechsler
… The Drug Information Association (DIA) recently established its global headquarters in Washington, D.C. to better serve 18,000 members in 80 countries through operations in Europe, Japan, India, China, and Latin America. DIA’s chief executive, Barbara Lopez Kunz, came from Battelle with strong international management experience to oversee DIA’s worldwide growth, which will be highlighted at its 50th annual meeting this month.

Moving into the Light: Patient Engagement a Major Focus at DIA and an Obvious Game Changer
June 18, 2014, IDC Health Insights – Dr. Alan S. Louie
As I've discussed in my 2014 prediction of an industry shift towards one degree of separation, several sessions and the meeting keynote at the Drug Information Association annual meeting in San Diego, CA are focusing on better engaging patients as a key contributor to long term industry success. This greater engagement (enabled and empowered, in part, by tech innovation) has the potential to deliver a number of near term benefits to both patients and the industry while fundamentally changing the way that the industry interacts with patients and other key stakeholders.

Forum to Discuss FDA Programs Encouraging Innovation
June 17, 2014, Pharmacy Choice – no author listed
A forum on "FDA Programs to Encourage Innovation: Maximizing the Opportunities and Confronting the Challenges of New Product Development" will take place on June 17, at 10:30 a.m. as part of the DIA 2014 50th Annual Meeting at the San Diego Convention Center. According to a release, as FDA promotes its initiatives to add flexibility to the drug approval process, scholars scrutinize their real-world impact on research and development.

Social Media Site Connects Patients Suffering From Similar Illnesses
June 17, 2014, KPBS San Diego Midday Edition (audio) - Megan Burke, Maureen Cavanaugh, Peggy Pico
Jamie Heywood: This was the 50th the DIA. What is interesting, they have decided this year to make it about the patient in a new way. I think it reflects a real fundamental shift both for life sciences, and also for all of healthcare. A series of historical ways of doing things have sort of disconnected them from the customer, disconnected them from the purpose to make people's lives better. They are calling for a reassessment for that by sort of our giving this talk. It was really about what kind of partnership where the patients and the drug industry working together would mean. That's what I was asked to present, and I think the message that I really gave was that it's not so much what you can do as an industry to sort of connect to patients or learn from them, it is really more that you better pay attention. Health professionals find that people dealing with chronic illness do better when they have a network of support. However, sometimes patients learn that friends and family have their limits: There's just so much they can say or empathize about an illness they don't have. The social media site PatientsLikeMe was started to build connections among people who are dealing with the same kinds of illnesses.

DIA Sets Agenda for Its Upcoming Annual Meeting in San Diego
June 11, 2014, Pharmacy Choice – no author listed
DIA reports that drug industry regulators will address urgent topics surrounding regulatory guidance, such as the challenges and future of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its international counterparts, at the DIA 2014 50th Annual Meeting to be held at the San Diego Convention Center from June 15 to 19.
"We are honored and excited to have the international regulatory community participating in the DIA Annual Meeting. In attending the milestone meeting, these distinguished professionals are demonstrating their commitment to foster global harmonization while sharing knowledge and insight to advance world health," said DIA Global Chief Executive Barbara L. Kunz. In its release, DIA said that Barbara Sabourin, director general of the Therapeutic Products Directorate for the Health Products and Food Branch of Health Canada, will be a panelist for the session "A Common Decision Framework for Health Technology Assessment and Regulatory Agencies: Is This of Benefit to Stakeholders?"-held on June 16 at 8:30 a.m.

DIA Annual Meeting to Feature Risk-Based Monitoring in Clinical Trials
June 11, 2014, Pharmacy Choice – no author listed
In a drug development landscape where clinical trial sponsors must find ways to gain value from limited research budgets, risk- based monitoring - the strategic assessment of risk when creating and conducting trials - is emerging as a model for reducing the complexity of a study while enhancing patient safety and saving time and money, says DIA. According to a release from the Company, sessions at the DIA 2014 50th Annual Meeting, June 15 to 19 at the San Diego Convention Center, will feature the top experts in industry and research exploring practical approaches to building a risk-based monitoring system to enhance a trial's effectiveness.

Forum to Discuss FDA Programs Encouraging Innovation
June 10, 2014, Pharmacy Choice – no author listed
A forum on "FDA Programs to Encourage Innovation: Maximizing the Opportunities and Confronting the Challenges of New Product Development" will take place on June 17, at 10:30 a.m. as part of the DIA 2014 50th Annual Meeting at the San Diego Convention Center. According to a release, as FDA promotes its initiatives to add flexibility to the drug approval process, scholars scrutinize their real-world impact on research and development. "FDA must change evidentiary standards to encourage innovation," said Coleen Klasmeier, chairwoman of the forum and global coordinator for the food, drug and medical device regulatory practice at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C.

Expect Some Surprises At This Year's DIA
June 9, 2014, Life Science Leader – Rob Wright
DIA’s (Drug Information Association) 50th annual meeting takes place in San Diego next week – June 15 – 19. Though DIA released the FINAL program, you would be wise to expect the unexpected because life happens. For example, if you show up to the session I will be chairing, Capital Efficient Drug Development with Revolutionary Technologies: Calculated Risks(p. 53 of Final Program, #223 Track 16), the speakers list is not accurate. Unfortunately, Thomas Hughes, Ph.D., CEO of Zafgen, informed us a few weeks ago he would not be able to make it. But do not worry.

A month-long adventure, all in the name of cancer
May 30, 2014, Philly.com – T.J. Sharpe
…Let's get you caught up to speed on where I've been and where I'm headed next, shall we?
After my 20th infusion two weeks ago, I got to “cover” something for the first time – so far my writings have really just been life experiences (with some quasi-journalistic endeavors thrown in there). On May 14, the DIA (a nonprofit trade association dedicated to medical product development) hosted a two-day Latin American Regulatory Conference meeting in Miami. Since I will be speaking at their annual meeting in a month, it was a nice chance to get acquainted with the organization and dip my toe into media coverage at the same time.